-St Petersburg SW/MW site is closing (including MW 1494 kHz)
-Samara SW site is also reported to be closing.
-Mayak is closing on MW/LW throughout Russia
-Voice of Russia is reducing some of its SW/MW output across its language services following budget cuts.

I listened to the Voice of Russia‘s (VoR) German broadcasts via Samara a number of times this summer. First time I came across the broadcaster – then still Radio Moscow – was in the 1980s, when I was a teenager. The authentic thing about the station was that they all seemed to be truly proud of their country (or “Union”), but that was basically it – most of it came across as rather surreal. I never became a regular listener, as I didn’t find the way they tried to “teach” their audience correct (or useful) political attitudes terribly charming. But I obviously did write several reception reports, and got several QSL cards with (usually, it seems) photos of Moscow’s touristic spots on them: one of the Lenin Mausoleum (see picture underneath), one of a big, ugly hotel with lots of different national flags above the entrance, and one card featuring a big stadium (probably the site of the 1980 Moscow Olympics).

Radio Moscow QSL, Lenin Mausoleum, 1980s.

I can’t tell for sure, because the scenic explanations on the cards were in Russian.

There were several (more or less) internatonal broadcasters in the Soviet Union besides Radio Moscow: Radio Kiev, Radio Vilnius, or Radio Tashkent, to name a few. But they all seemed to rely on the same pool of transmisson sites, all over the Soviet Union. The Samara site was probably among them, too.

A number of AM broadcasting cuts are going to take effect on January 1, 2013, according to Radio Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB). Besides Samara, Popovka transmission site in Krasny Bor near St. Petersburg will also be shut down. No shortwave broadcasts for Europe and North America anymore, and long-lasting airtime exchange cooperation on shortwave with China Radio International (CRI) has recently been terminated, according to RBB.

In 2003, Deutschlandfunk (DLF, Germany’s national domestic radio) had a feature about the Voice of Russia’s German service. The foreign broadcaster’s German department, now no longer “Radio Moscow”, saw struggles among its staff for free coverage of issues listeners might be interested in, but the department manager, Anatóli Stjópkin, denied that there was censorship. Of course, he was in a position to correct mistakes made by colleagues. There was pressure from the government, the Deutschlandfunk report alledged – and “an insecure manager passed that pressure on to the staff”.

Since we are discussing global radio, I really enjoy DW’s World Link which deals with unreported stuff around the world. Last week: athiest blogger in Scri Lanka threatened with jihad, Malian refugees concerned about interruptions to their uni education, unemployed and very well educated young adults in Spain and stuff like this. 280,000 of Spains best and brightest departed for better economies last year….God, knows how many this year.

Tremendous stuff with a focus on people in in dire circumstances under 30 years. Broadcast every Sunday here on 24 News Radio. 94.75. Makes me feel young again.

The Oz news radio component is crap, but compensated by BBC all night (my addiction), Boston Calling (NPR) from US and another great program, since concluded, which came out of the Netherlands.